The waste system of living cells, the proteasome, not only shreds disused or damaged proteins. It also supports the immune system in recognizing virally infected or cancerous cells by producing protein fragments, so-called immunopeptides. In an international collaboration, researchers led by Juliane Liepe at the Max Planck Institute (MPI) for Multidisciplinary Sciences have now simulated protein degradation by the proteasome in the laboratory and identified and quantified the peptides thereby produced. In future, the resulting data set could help predict…
Fraunhofer Institute for Wind Energy Systems IWES is joining forces with ENERTRAG SE to assist in planning an expansive onshore wind farm as part of Hyphen’s green hydrogen project in Namibia. Covering 4,000 km2 and generating four gigawatts (GW) of power, the scale alone poses significant challenges for current site assessment methods, prompting Fraunhofer IWES to use innovative and precise approaches for wind field calculations to optimize yield. Green hydrogen enables the storage and long-distance transportation of solar and wind…
ISTA researchers analyze brain region using new method. Fear and addiction exert significant influence within society. Managing them is often challenging, as they are driven by intricate neuronal circuits in our brains. Understanding the underlying molecular mechanisms is crucial to intervene when these processes malfunction. Pioneered by scientists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA), the novel “Flash and Freeze-fracture” technique provides a unique glimpse into the respective brain region. The results were recently published in the journal…
AWI research team shows that jellyfish play an important, previously unknown role in the diet of amphipods during the polar night. The Arctic is changing rapidly due to climate change. It is not only affected by increasing surface temperatures, but also by warm water from the Atlantic, which is flowing in more and more – changing the structures and functions of the ecosystem as it also leads to species from warmer regions, such as jellyfish, arriving in the Arctic. Using…
Researchers at Mainz University have been able to visualize the third class of magnetism, called altermagnetism, in action. Ferromagnetism and antiferromagnetism have long been known to scientists as two classes of magnetic order of materials. Back in 2019, researchers at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) postulated a third class of magnetism, called altermagnetism. This altermagnetism has been the subject of heated debate among experts ever since, with some expressing doubts about its existence. Recently, a team of experimental researchers led…
New InP-based modulator with record-high bit rates could help move more data faster. As data traffic continues to increase, there is a critical need for miniaturized optical transmitters and receivers that operate with high-order multi-level modulation formats and faster data transmission rates. In an important step toward fulfilling this requirement, researchers developed a new compact indium phosphide (InP)-based coherent driver modulator (CDM) and showed that it can achieve a record high baud rate and transmission capacity per wavelength compared to…
… and reduces medications in insulinoma patients. Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT) is effective for clinical control of symptomatic metastatic insulinomas, according to new research published in the February issue of The Journal of Nuclear Medicine. In the largest study to date of metastatic insulinoma patients treated with PRRT, more than 80 percent of patients had long-lasting symptom control, and nearly 60 percent were able to reduce the use of other drugs to treat the disease. Metastatic insulinoma is a rare…
BMBF awards funding for junior research group at Friedrich Schiller University Jena to research photocatalytic production of green hydrogen. Hydrogen holds vast potential as a fuel, provided that it is produced using renewable energy. But just how efficiently can we produce green hydrogen in sufficient quantities? This issue is the focus of a research group headed up by Dr Jacob Schneidewind at the Center for Energy and Environmental Chemistry at Friedrich Schiller University Jena, Germany. Their SINATRA: SolSTEP project, which…
The quest for the limit of the periodic table. Since the turn of the century, six new chemical elements have been discovered and subsequently added to the periodic table of elements, the very icon of chemistry. These new elements have high atomic numbers up to 118 and are significantly heavier than uranium, the element with the highest atomic number (92) found in larger quantities on Earth. This raises questions such as how many more of these superheavy species are waiting…
Compact photoacoustic sensing instrument for breast tissue characterization. A compact, cost-effective photoacoustic sensing instrument promises to enhance clinical diagnostics with greater speed and accuracy, for improved patient care and outcomes. In the realm of biomedical sciences, the quest for accurate and efficient diagnostic tools is ever-evolving. One such promising innovation making waves is the photoacoustic (PA) technique. In the past decade, PA imaging has emerged as a viable imaging modality demonstrated in many clinical applications with promising outcomes. Unlike traditional…
The rising number of passengers and the associated air traffic are increasingly pushing the civil aviation system to its capacity limits. The use of artificial intelligence (AI) could play an important role in meeting the challenges of this development. As part of the KIEZ 4-0 project, fortiss has therefore developed concepts together with its project partners from aviation and science to enable the certification of the safety of AI-supported applications in aviation. The results of the project were presented at…
Climate changes usually happens over long periods of time, but during the last glacial period, extreme fluctuations in temperature occurred within just a few years. Researchers at the University of Basel have now been able to prove the phenomenon also occurred during the penultimate glacial period. In recent geological history, the so-called Quaternary period, there have been repeated ice ages and warm periods. Researchers are able to determine past climate variability from the composition of climate records. In the case…
Desert ants find their way during an early learning phase with the help of the Earth’s magnetic field. The associated learning process leaves clear traces in their nervous system. This is shown in a new study by a Würzburg research team. They are only a few centimeters tall and their brains have a comparatively simple structure with less than one million neurons. Nevertheless, desert ants of the Cataglyphis genus possess abilities that distinguish them from many other creatures: The animals…
In autumn 2021, geologists discovered an unusual row of stones, almost 1 km long, at the bottom of Mecklenburg Bight. The site is located around 10 kilometres off Rerik in 21 metres water depth. The approximately 1,500 stones are aligned so regularly that a natural origin seems unlikely. A team of researchers from different disciplines now concluded, that Stone Age hunter-gatherers likely built this structure around 11,000 years ago to hunt reindeer. The finding represents the first discovery of a…
University of Queensland-led research has shown there is more coral reef area across the globe than previously thought, with detailed satellite mapping helping to conserve these vital ecosystems. Dr Mitchell Lyons from UQ’s School of the Environment, working as part of the Allen Coral Atlas project, said scientists have now identified 348,000 square kilometres of shallow coral reefs, up to 20-30 metres deep. “This revises up our previous estimate of shallow reefs in the world’s oceans,” Dr Lyons said. “Importantly, the high-resolution, up-to-date mapping…
Two astrophysicists from the Laboratory for Space Research (LSR) at The University of Hong Kong (HKU) have finally solved a 20-year-old astrophysical puzzle concerning the lower-than-expected amounts of the element Sulphur found in Planetary Nebulae (PNe) in comparison to expectations and measurements of other elements and other types of astrophysical objects. The expected levels of Sulphur have long appeared to be “missing in action”. However, they have now finally reported for duty after hiding in plain sight, as a result…
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